Dear Editor,
Rishi Sunak’s arrival as Britain’s Prime Minister is a groundbreaking milestone, as the UK’s first Prime Minister of colour and the youngest in modern political history shows that the world has rapidly evolved from a few decades ago.
Sunak, the youngest British PM in over 200 years, is the son of Indian immigrants and heritage, and is now running a country that once colonised his forefathers. But if his victory swept away another barrier in British politics — putting Mr. Sunak in the same pathbreaking category as Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female Prime Minister, and Benjamin Disraeli, its only Prime Minister of Jewish heritage — it also thrust him into power at a singularly difficult moment.
This reminds me of President Dr Irfaan Ali’s commitment to his ‘One Guyana’ vision, promoting greater inclusion at the legislative, political and social levels, thus creating avenues for all to prevail. It represents a social contract of inclusion, since no individual, Government or society has all the answers. Nevertheless, Guyana has become the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) largest trading partner in the Caribbean, after trade between the two nations in 2021 amounted to 516 million pounds, and accounted for 21.6 per cent of all the UK’s trade with the Caribbean.
With the recent announcement of visa-free travel to the UK, the trade will expand further, as Guyana is ripe for development and transformation into a brighter future for all Guyanese. The UK visa waiver is not isolated to strengthening relationships and building out opportunities, but is also an essential pillar in developing people-to-people contact as Guyana aims to take its place as a global leader in a number of areas, including ecological services, environmental services and climate change.
It is with great optimism that, under the tenure of PM Sunak, greater bilateral opportunities evolve to benefit both countries in the future. Mr. Sunak, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, is expected to pull Britain back to more mainstream policies, after Ms. Truss’s failed experiment in trickle-down economics, which rattled financial markets and badly damaged Britain’s fiscal reputation.
He is also likely to offer a stark contrast to the flamboyant style and erratic behaviour of Boris Johnson, his former boss, and Ms. Truss’s discredited predecessor.
Regards,
Halim Khan
Region Three Private Sector Inc (R3PSi) Head
